House of 1000 Corpses
House of 1000 Corpses is a 2003 American black comedy horror film written, co-scored, and directed by Rob Zombie in his directorial debut, and the first film in the Firefly film series. It stars Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, Karen Black, Rainn Wilson, Chris Hardwick, Tom Towles, Erin Daniels, Jennifer Jostyn, Walton Goggins, and Dennis Fimple in his final role. The plot centers on a group of teenagers who are kidnapped and tortured by a psychopathic family during Halloween after traveling across the country to write a book.
Inspired by 1970s horror films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, Zombie conceived the film while designing a haunted-house attraction for Universal Studios Hollywood, where filming took place in 2000 on the backlots and in Valencia, California. When the studio shelved the film fearing that it would receive an NC-17 rating, Zombie re-acquired the rights. They were eventually sold to Lions Gate Entertainment, who released the film in April 2003. Despite receiving an unfavorable response from critics, it went on to gross $16 million worldwide. Since its release, the film has achieved a cult following, was developed into a haunted-house attraction by Zombie for Universal Studios, and was followed by two sequels: The Devil's Rejects and 3 from Hell.
Plot
On October 30, 1977, amateur criminals Karl and Richard Wick attempt an armed robbery at a gas station/horror museum, but are killed by the owner, Captain Spaulding, and his assistant, Ravelli. Later that night, Jerry Goldsmith, Bill Hudley, Mary Knowles, and Denise Willis are on the road in hopes of writing a book on offbeat roadside attractions. When the four meet Spaulding, who is also the owner of "The Museum of Monsters & Madmen", they learn of the local legend of Dr. Satan. As they take off in search of the tree from which Dr. Satan was hanged, they pick up a young free-spirited hitchhiker named Baby, who claims to live only a few miles away. Shortly after, a mysterious figure appears hidden in some overgrowth and shoots out their vehicle's tire with a shotgun. The group thinks it is just a blown out tire and so Baby takes Bill to her family's house to get a tow truck. Moments later, Baby's half-brother, Rufus, picks up the stranded passengers and takes them to the family home.There, they meet Baby's family: her adopted brother Otis Driftwood, her deformed giant half-brother Tiny, Mother Firefly, and Grandpa Hugo. While being treated to dinner, Mother Firefly explains that her ex-husband, Earl, had previously tried to burn Tiny alive, along with the Firefly house after he suffered a psychotic breakdown. After dinner, the family puts on a Halloween show for their guests and Baby offends Mary by flirting with Bill. After Mary threatens Baby, Rufus tells them their car is repaired. As the couples leave, Otis and Tiny, disguised as scarecrows, attack them in the driveway and take them captive. The next day, Otis kills Bill and mutilates his body for art. Mary is tied up in a room and tormented by Otis, Denise is tied to a bed dressed up as a doll for Halloween, and Jerry is partially scalped for failing to guess Baby's favorite movie star.
When Denise does not come home, her father Don calls the police to report her missing. Two deputies, George Wydell and Steve Naish, find the couples' abandoned car in a field with a dead, mutilated cheerleader in the trunk. Don, a former policeman, is called to the scene to help the deputies search. They arrive at the Firefly house and Wydell questions Mother Firefly about the missing teens. Mother Firefly shoots Wydell in the head and kills him; Don and Steve are then killed by Otis when they find more bodies of missing cheerleaders in the barn, along with a barely conscious Mary.
Later that night, the three remaining teenagers are dressed as rabbits and taken out to an abandoned well. Otis torments Denise using the skin of her dead father's face as a mask. Mary attempts to run away, but is tracked down and stabbed to death by Baby moments later. Otis and the family burn the bodies on a pyre.
Meanwhile, Jerry and Denise are placed in a coffin and lowered into a well, where a group of Dr. Satan's failed experiments break open the coffin and pull Jerry away, leaving Denise to find her way through an underground lair. As she wanders through tunnels filled with mutilated corpses, she encounters Dr. Satan and a number of mental patients; Jerry is on Dr. Satan's operating table being vivisected, and dies as Denise screams. Dr. Satan orders his mutated gargantuan assistant, who turns out to be Mother Firefly's ex-husband Earl, to capture Denise, but Denise outwits him and escapes by crawling to the surface as Earl is crushed by falling debris in the collapsing tunnel.
She makes her way to the main road where she encounters Captain Spaulding, who gives her a ride in his car. She passes out from exhaustion in the front seat, and Otis suddenly appears in the back seat with a knife. Denise later wakes up to find herself strapped to an operating table, surrounded by Dr. Satan and Earl, who survived the cave-in. The movie ends with Denise screaming in horror and the words "The End?" displayed before the end credits.
Cast
- Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding
- Bill Moseley as Otis Driftwood
- Sheri Moon as Baby Firefly
- Karen Black as Mother Firefly
- Chris Hardwick as Jerry Goldsmith
- Erin Daniels as Denise Willis
- Jennifer Jostyn as Mary Knowles
- Rainn Wilson as Bill Hudley
- Walton Goggins as Deputy Steve Naish
- Tom Towles as Lt. George Wydell
- Matthew McGrory as Tiny Firefly
- Robert Allen Mukes as Rufus Firefly
- Dennis Fimple as Grandpa Hugo
- Harrison Young as Don Willis
- William Bassett as Sheriff Frank Huston
- Irwin Keyes as Ravelli
- Michael Pollard as Stucky
- Jeanne Carmen as Miss Bunny
Production
Development
rose to fame as frontman of the White Zombie metal band before beginning a solo career. Zombie's debut album, Hellbilly Deluxe, was influenced by classic horror films, as were its music videos for "Dragula" and "Living Dead Girl". The album was a commercial success, selling over three million copies in the United States. Prior to working on House of 1000 Corpses, Zombie had worked on animation for Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, directed music videos, and completed a full screenplay for The Crow: 2037, but was unsuccessful getting it greenlit with himself as director. In 1999, Zombie designed a haunted maze attraction at Universal Studios that was instrumental in reviving the studio's annual Halloween Horror Nights and for which Bill Moseley presented Zombie an award. The studio later began working on an animated Frankenstein film which Zombie hoped to be a part of, though plans for the film were ultimately scrapped by the studio.The idea for House of 1000 Corpses came to Zombie while designing a haunted house attraction with that title for the studio. In 1999, MTV News announced Madonna was considering producing a horror film Zombie would write and direct called The Legend of the 13 Graves, which would center on "a group of road-trippers traveling through America who wind up encountering a suitably sick and twisted family." The film would have been co-produced by Madonna and her partner, Guy Oseary, through Madguy Films.
Universal responded positively to Zombie's pitch. Zombie later stated, "I was in the office of the head of production or something and he asked me if I had any movie ideas and I pitched him Corpses, which was very rough at the time, because I wasn't ready and I made it up on the spot. He liked it, I went home, wrote a 12-page treatment and met up with them. Two months later, we were shooting." Production on the film began in May 2000 and was finished by Halloween of 2000. The house was launched the following year, although the title was changed to "American Nightmare" due to the film's shelving. Despite the name change, the house still featured numerous references to the film, and the theatrical trailer played while customers waited.
The film's starting budget was $3–4 million, though its final budget is debatable. Zombie first claimed that the film was made solely with the initial $4 million but later described a budget between $7 million and $14 million. Zombie later admitted that he initially knew he did not have the funding for a good ending but gambled that if he shot what he could on what remained of his budget, the studio would kick in more funds to make a better ending. "I knew the ending sucked, so I let it suck and they said, 'The movie's great but the ending sucks' and I know. So they gave me more money and we shot a more elaborate ending, bigger sets, the whole razzamatazz." The original film featured more characters, including a skunk ape, and featured footage of the four teenagers on their road trip. Universal hoped that the film would focus more on the group of kids, but Zombie knew "nobody gives a shit about the kids". Zombie claimed the film was not initially meant to feature elements of black humor, saying it "turned out a little wackier and campier than I originally intended. But as we were shooting, that's the tone that it was turning out to be. Movies sometimes dictate their own course, so I just sort of went with it."
The film was shot on a 25-day shooting schedule. Two weeks were spent filming on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlots—the house featured in the film is the same house used in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and it can be seen on Universal Studios' tram tours. Zombie stated that filming on the lot was at times difficult, as the amusement park was often open and ruined takes. The remaining 11 days of the shoot were spent on a ranch in Valencia, California. The scene involving Bill being transformed into "Fishboy" was initially much longer, featuring gory details of the creation of the monster. Zombie stated the scene was created after Universal passed on the film. Scenes featuring Baby masturbating with a skeleton, along with other cutaway scenes, were filmed in Zombie's basement after initial filming for the project had concluded. Zombie later cited home recordings from the Manson family as inspiration for the Firefly family's "bizarre" rants. Zombie often filmed two versions of scenes, one of them less gory, in an attempt to please Universal.
Jake McKinnon could not see well when dressed as The Professor, and almost hit actress Erin Daniels with a real ax during the film's climax. Zombie later said he had simply hoped Daniels would move out of the way in time. When Denise calls her father from a telephone booth, a sign for a missing dog head can be seen hanging in the booth; this was in fact a real item found by Zombie and used for the film. In the early stages of the film, Grandpa Hugo was to have been revealed as the murderous Dr. Satan, who at the time was simply referred to as the mad doctor. The legend of the mad doctor was to be a ploy by the Firefly family to lure victims in, though this idea was later scrapped. This led to Grandpa Hugo receiving much less screen time. The character of Dr. Satan was inspired by a 1950s billboard-sized poster advertising a "live spook show starring a magician called Dr. Satan" that Zombie has in his house.